Following the success of the High Speed 2 Local Authority Noise Consortium (HS2 LANC) at the Noise Abatement Society John Connell Awards at the House of Commons on Tuesday 31st October, we were pleased to learn of its subsequent award for Outstanding Environmental Health Team at the prestigious Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH) Excellence Awards 2017 just two days later, Thursday 2nd November.
As the entry details on the CIEH web-site for this high profile award state:
In November and December 2015, the HS2 LANC authorities appeared before the HS2 Select Committee to present the route wide noise case on ‘operational’ and subsequently ‘construction related’ noise issues. Lengthy and complex negotiations with the authorities secured assurances and amendments to ‘Information Papers’ relating to noise resulting in a commitment that ‘all reasonably foreseeable circumstances’ would be taken into account when designing the railway. They also secured an assurance to prevent the Nominated Undertaker from changing assessment models for airborne noise, ground noise and vibration which could have resulted in a different and less favourable result for those impacted, an assurance when applying the Noise Policy Statement for England (NPSE) that commitments must apply to individual receptors and not just ‘community groupings’ and an amendment to the planning regime for the scheme requiring the nominated undertaker to provide technical information at an early stage in the planning process
The team’s efforts are considered to have been very successful. HS2 LANC was in place for 3 years culminating in petition negotiation in the House of Commons and the Lords. LANC lead petition authorities were agreed, operational SNV Chiltern, and construction SNV Camden supported by Aylesbury Vale. For the committee stages leading experts experienced in construction and railway noise were instructed – SNV experts, a specialist barrister in environmental law and a Parliamentary Agent. The team gained confidence and funding from consortium members and governance was put into place including legal agreements between collaborating authorities.
Southdowns Environmental Consultants Ltd is pleased to have played an active role in HS2 LANC’s work as its consultancy of choice for lead expert advice on Sound, Noise and Vibration based on its extensive experience of noise and vibration work on the design and delivery of major railway projects.